Academy Blog | Train Better. Stay Safe.

With budget cuts and staffing issues plaguing many departments, finding the bandwidth to meet, manage and document required POST or state-mandated training can be an uphill battle. As a response, law enforcement has begun to turn to online learning as an ideal officer training solution.

Here are a few ways your online learning provider should help your department meet its annual training requirements and decrease liability.

ONLINE TRAINING CATERS TO STATE REQUIREMENTS

Online learning is customizable. So whether your department needs to adhere to state-specific Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST), or internal requirements, you can ensure your program is compliant.

Your online learning provider should work with you to help you meet requirements in your state, regardless of how quickly mandates change. For example, our PoliceOne Academy Platform is accredited or approved for use in 38 states, and continually adds and updates new courses to be in line with the latest industry standards.

Additionally, many modern online training solutions can deliver content on smartphones, tablets, or desktop computers, making them available anywhere, at any time. Tracking time, even if it’s short bursts during the day— like roll call training—can help your officers reach annual requirements.

In many states, licensed officers must complete a minimum of 48 hours of continuing education, annually, to maintain their license. It can be difficult to accommodate coverage for each officer when you have an understaffed department. Thanks to the accessibility of online learning, departments can increase the number of training hours while reducing the number of hours an officer is absent.

“One of our initial goals was to get our officers to complete our 8 hours of mandatory training online instead of at the academy, which has saved on time and cost tremendously. With PoliceOne, IMPD has saved $100,000 in the past year and doubled our training time average per officer in just months.” – Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.

ONLINE COURSES CAN HELP FILL TRAINING GAPS AND DECREASE LIABILITY

It’s likely your department needs to meet a number of specialized training requirements or state mandates. You may currently be on the hook for identifying—and paying for—a range of instructors to conduct multiple, in-person training sessions. Online learning can greatly ease if not eliminate this burden.

An online learning provider with a comprehensive course library can efficiently deliver training for a large number of specialized topics that might prove costly to provide in a classroom setting.

In addition, by offering increased training opportunities, you are reducing liability costs at your department, too—which can take a huge bite out of your department’s budget. For example, according to the Boston Globe, the city of Boston has spent more than $36 million to resolve 2,000 legal claims and lawsuits against the Boston Police Department over the past decade.

High-liability categories, which are all offered on the P1A platform, include:

Use of force

Responding to emergencies

Dealing with edged weapons and firearms

Patrol

Pursuit

Cultural awareness

Diversity

Tactical operations

Safe Driving

HR

OSHA and Safety Training

Having access to a broad library of online training courses is a viable solution to help improve officer safety, productivity and performance and decrease risk while staying within budget.

REPORTING AND TRACKING PROGRESS MINIMIZES RISK

Maintaining accurate training records is as important as actually taking the required courses. Without proof of course completion and department compliance, one audit or legal issue can completely disrupt your agency.

One of the benefits of online learning is the streamlined electronic record of your department’s training activity. A learning management system (LMS) enables departments to eliminate any makeshift or paper processes currently in use. This improved workflow benefits everyone, from officers to the administration and leadership divisions.

For instance, if an officer is unable to complete training in one sitting, courses can be bookmarked and completed at a later time. Administrators and leaders can easily monitor the progress and the completion of assigned tasks. Then, anyone within the department can easily pull a report for state commissions or authorities in the event of an audit. Digitally organizing and tracking your department’s compliance can also reduce liability in the case of a lawsuit.

AN ONLINE TRAINING SOLUTION LESSENS BUDGET AND TIME COMMITMENTS

Often, police budgets don’t align with the resources and time needed for officers to meet annual training mandates. This becomes a challenge for the Training Lieutenant in command as an officer cannot be on patrol and scheduled for in-person training at the same time. So will your department plan training during work hours? Or will you pay for overtime?

What if some of those training sessions are only available in particular regions in your state and your officers have to travel? Additionally, managing work schedules when officers are away at training adds another layer of complexity.

An online training platform can be the solution to these problems. The flexibility opens the doors to allowing officers to complete training in between calls while on patrol, which cuts overtime costs and keeps your department compliant. Further, it provides administrators with a tangible return on investment from both a time and monetary perspective.

Today’s law enforcement agencies are faced with complex training requirements and need cost-effective ways to ensure personnel is compliant with state standards. An LMS that offers high-quality courses and tracking can meet those needs.

For more information on PoliceOne Academy, click here to schedule a demo, email our Customer Success Team or call 866.941.4090 to speak with one of our PoliceOne Academy representatives.

PoliceOne Academy gives departments the flexibility to create the law enforcement training they’d like to train their officers on. Build courses, quizzes and assessments on topics you choose to teach and create reports on training completions and compliance to ensure your officers are improving on their training development. Control the content that’s created and assigned, manage policies and post internal announcements while allowing personnel to access shared files and documentation.

Watch this brief video to learn how departments can:

Add department-specific content to the largest, up-to-date library of law enforcement training

Recently, PoliceOne Academy built a new tool to help departments determine their cost savings by transitioning part of their required annual training to an online learning solution. Our ROI calculator estimates your current spend on training versus how much you can save on law enforcement training with PoliceOne Academy’s platform.

The goal for this estimation tool is to demonstrate how moving part of your annual training to an online solution can positively impact your bottom line and reduce budget spending.

With our potential savings estimator, your department can:*

Evaluate the cost/benefit of purchasing an online solution

Determine the time saved on tracking and reporting training

Compare existing training procedures to our features & functionality

*Disclaimer: To receive your potential savings calculation, you must complete a demo of PoliceOne Academy with a sales representative.

For more information on PoliceOne Academy, click here to schedule a demo, email our Customer Success Team or call 866.941.4090 to speak with one of our PoliceOne Academy representatives.

We’ve released fresh content in our learning management system that training coordinators can assign to personnel. These new courses range from Financial Planning for First Responders to Effective Communication for Law Enforcement. Training resources are vital to the success of public safety in the United States, so PoliceOne Academy strives to create valuable content for departments to properly train officers and maintain compliance.

List of New Courses

Building Financial Strength in First Responder Families

You have a great career as a first responder and you are making good money. How do you ensure you can retire with what you need? Many of us do not know the answer to that question. We often plan our budgets and spending, but how many first responder personnel sit down and plan for retirement? It is imperative to start planning for retirement early in your career. This course will provide a basic understanding of financial tools and requirements so that you can achieve economic health. Having a plan is critical to help reduce stress, alleviate ethical issues, maintain security clearances, and stop living paycheck to paycheck.

Constitutional Policing

The most recent event to spark interest in Community Policing was the aftermath in Ferguson, Missouri. While it seems this may be an incredibly difficult time in policing, it proves the significance of building relationships and increasing leadership within the community.

Cultural Awareness and Diversity Overview

Diversity is more than just a buzzword of political correctness. There are many people who view diversity as a way to make one part more important than the whole, and in their minds, if each part of the whole does not work towards maintaining a greater mission, the system will fall apart. Diversity is not about divisiveness; it’s about encouraging and embracing our differences. As you take this course, think about your own cultural upbringing and how it influences who you are today.

Opioid Crisis: Protecting Our First Responders

The increased availability of synthetic opioids coupled with the heroin epidemic has not only led to a significant increase in overdoses and deaths, but also an increased risk to first responders who must come into contact with these substances during the course of their duties. Exposure to small amounts, the size of a grain of sand, can lead to respiratory depression and even death. Proper identification and knowledge of the various opioids, signs and symptoms of exposure, and immediate life-saving measures to be employed in the event of exposure are critical to saving the life of yourself or others. Additionally, the likelihood of first responder exposure requires the implementation of universal precautions including but not limited to personal protective equipment (PPE), Narcan training, and specific procedures for testing of suspected substances.

Public Recording of Police Activities

Recording the actions and activities of police officers in the performance of their public duties is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, through which individuals may gather and disseminate information of public concern. This right is extended to video and audio recording of any police activity performed in public or where an individual otherwise has a legal right to be present. In effect, the public has the same rights to record police activities as the press. In this course, you will examine civilians’ interest in recording police activities as well as the laws and limitations surrounding the public’s constitutionally held rights.

For more information on PoliceOne Academy, click here to schedule a demo or call 866.941.4090 to speak with one of our PoliceOne Academy representatives.

Assign These New Courses to Your Personnel

Recently, PoliceOne Academy released new law enforcement courses and videos for you to assign to your officers. These new courses touch on a variety of topics – from Public Recording of Police Activities to Opioid Crisis: Protecting Our First Responders. With the increased demand for relevant law enforcement course topics and training resources, PoliceOne Academy’s content and accreditation team works diligently to build course content that your department can use to properly train personnel and ensure that they maintain compliance.

List of New Courses

Full-Length Courses

Cyberstalking

In recent years, stalkers have taken advantage of the anonymity of the Internet to commit crimes. This has added a new dimension because it is difficult for victims of cyberstalking, as well as law enforcement, to discern the identity of the stalker. Cyberstalking makes the fear more palpable and prosecution more challenging. This course will discuss the basics, relevant laws, challenges, and practical solutions for cyberstalking cases.

Interacting with the Mentally Ill as a First Responder

With the increased number of cases in the mental health population as well as greater mental instability within the general public, dealing with the mentally ill has become a common occurrence for first responders. Often lacking is a strong knowledge base and proper tools and techniques for how to handle and interact with these individuals safely and effectively. Proper identification and understanding of the major mental disorders are essential. Additionally, being able to identify the various classes of psychiatric medications and their uses will help the first responder in the identification of the type of mental illness as well as guide his or her interaction.

Opioid Crisis: Protecting Our First Responders

The increased availability of synthetic opioids coupled with the heroin epidemic has not only led to a significant increase in overdoses and deaths, but also an increased risk to first responders who must come into contact with these substances during the course of their duties. Exposure to small amounts, the size of a grain of sand, can lead to respiratory depression and even death. Proper identification and knowledge of the various opioids, signs and symptoms of exposure, and immediate life-saving measures to be employed in the event of exposure are critical to saving the life of yourself or others. Additionally, the likelihood of first responder exposure requires the implementation of universal precautions including but not limited to personal protective equipment (PPE), Narcan training, and specific procedures for testing of suspected substances.

Public Recording of Police Activities

Recording the actions and activities of police officers in the performance of their public duties is a form of speech protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, through which individuals may gather and disseminate information of public concern. This right is extended to video and audio recording of any police activity performed in public or where an individual otherwise has a legal right to be present. In effect, the public has the same rights to record police activities as the press. In this course, you will examine civilians’ interest in recording police activities as well as the laws and limitations surrounding the public’s constitutionally held rights.

Yoga for First Responders

First responders serving in emergency response can experience physical health issues which range from chronic pain to difficulty sleeping. They are also at risk for post-traumatic stress and are routinely challenged to perform high-stress situations. Yoga practice is effective for reducing the impact of stress experienced by emergency personnel and increasing resiliency to support improved performance in crisis situations. This course explains the scientific basis for yoga practice to support emergency personnel and provides introductory yoga practices appropriate for any first responder. No experience is necessary and flexibility is not a requirement. Although most people associate yoga with poses, this course highlights the most important and beneficial aspect, tactical breath work. This course will allow you to experience yoga practice and consider what types of yoga may be a good fit for a personal yoga practice. Also included are strategies for incorporating yoga in emergency personnel units.

The PoliceOne Academy content and accreditation teams have made a collaborative effort this year to evaluate the latest trends and topics in law enforcement online training to help build a more in-depth training library for law enforcement personnel. With the feedback provided by our valuable clients, we’ve made the necessary changes to older courses, while continuing to add new and original content to our learning management platform.

On December 31, 2017, we will be retiring older versions of course content, with new versions going live on January 1, 2018. To ensure that you and/or your personnel have completed course requirements before they are either removed or updated, please review the list below to see what has changed.

Now that your department has an online learning solution, here’s how to make sure it gets used

Every first responder knows that not all training is dynamic, hands-on work. Before (and often, after) engaging in reality-based scenario training, driver training, defensive tactics and other topics, there is
a considerable amount of time spent in a classroom, watching an instructor read a PowerPoint presentation.

The fact is, most of these learning sessions can easily be taken from a classroom lecture and conducted
online in a robust learning management system. This can save a police department time and money and improve the quality of the learner’s experience. Because of these savings, many departments are moving toward adoption of an online learning management system.

However, some end users resist the change. How does a training manager for a police department influence personnel to engage in the online system? Here are six proven suggestions:

1) Identify a superuser who can influence stragglers

Select an evangelist for online learning. Ideally, this is a line-level police officer who has the respect of his or her peers and has received robust training in how the system works. An evangelist believes in the value of the LMS the department has selected to implement and the benefits to individual learners. This superuser can help other individuals who have questions about everything, from navigating the user interface to accessing the most compelling content in a proactive and self-guided manner.

2) Assign courses and hold personnel accountable

Pre-determine specific assignments for the quarter or year and use automated reminders that prompt end users about deadlines and training requirements. If users are allowed to simply log on to an LMS when they have time, there is a high probability they will be scrolling a social media site instead, and their raining will go unfinished. When officers are required to complete a task, they do it, even begrudgingly.

Start by assigning courses that are most likely to engage users with the training system. A recently created course on officer-down response, mass gathering safety or active-shooter tactics is more likely to make a positive first impression. Save the annual mandatory courses like bloodborne pathogens or slip and fall prevention for when personnel are more familiar with the training system and better understand its purpose.

3) Make LMS content part of the daily “routine”

Create an “every day is a training day” culture in your police department by assigning a short video each day for review during briefing. Five-minute videos can consist of a subject matter expert speaking direct to camera about a specific incident or a general concept. Videos can be scenario-based training or even real-world footage of a recent event.

Another way to create this everyday training mindset is to use the LMS to distribute memos from command staff — important documents like policies, SOPs, general order updates, incident debriefs and AG directives which are required to be read by all personnel across all public safety disciplines — in the online learning platform. Replace the old-school and ineffective practice of posting paper memos to a bulletin board or handing out at briefing by allowing personnel to read documents online. This also allows the agency to track that the messages and documents have been read. The receipt and reading of the document is recorded in an individual’s training files. This can help agencies to prove compliance on high-liability training which is required to be documented in a centralized environment.

4) Have trainers create their own custom content

Get the training cadre to add their own custom-made and blended learning curricula into the LMS platform. Remember that the LMS can also be used to track offline or classroom training records.

Off-the-shelf courses certainly have tremendous value, but public safety personnel tend to respond even better to training content that is unique to their jurisdiction or agency. Trainers who are able to design curricula with video of scenarios captured at recognizable places in town will have a more realistic training experience.

For example, if an agency is going to present training on how to self-apply a tourniquet with the officer’s non-dominant hand, the trainer could require that a video he or she had recorded on the topic be viewed online before the hands-on practice and competency assessment session. Record the video at a location
in the jurisdiction that is well-known to the officers, increasing the value of the segment.

When the officers arrive at training, that portion of the instruction has already been completed, and the learners can immediately get to work practicing that skill. In addition to saving time in the mattroom or training room, this practice encourages use of the LMS platform, and makes the end user’s experience better.

5) Train the training cadre on how to use templates for easy upload of their course assets

Don’t forget your training cadre. It is vital that the trainers be given specialized and detailed training in how to utilize the system. The better the training staff is at getting custom content into the system, the more content they will produce, thus increasing the value of the platform for the end user.

6) Encourage the training staff to have patience with the process

Just like any other change in policies and procedures, there will be individuals who enthusiastically embrace the new way of doing things. However, at least at first, there will be people who resist change and refuse — to the extent possible — to use the system. There may be a small percentage of people who complain about the new system all the way to retirement.

Training staff must not get disheartened and discontinue their work in assigning existing courses as well as creating new training content. In time, the stragglers will come around.

Recognize also that there will also be large group of personnel who are willing to use the system, but just need some direction in to get started. Don’t lose focus on the primary goal — more and better training — because of a small percentage of grumblers and foot-draggers. Focus on the majority of personnel who are willing to make the change with leadership and encouragement from the training cadre.

An online learning management system can help make any police department’s training program more effective and efficient. Remember, bring in a superuser early to gain support and maximize the use of the available feature functionality, like building your own courses. These things, along with creating that “every day is a training day” mentality, can ensure your agency sees strong utilization.